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Usually, if your Aston Martin winds up underwater, you're having a bad day. Not so with Project Neptune.

The Aston Martin Project Neptune luxury submarine: At last, Aston builds one for the supervillains

This wacky $4 million underseas exploration vehicle just might be more than a publicity stunt

October 2, 2017

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We all know that Aston Martin makes the cars for the heroes; it’s been that way since a silver DB5 rolled onto the silver screen in 1965’s "Goldfinger." But Aston’s latest venture, the so-called Project Neptune submarine, has to be aiming for the baddies.

How do we know? Because a personal sub is the sort of thing you use to get to an undersea lair, and it is well-known that lairs (whether located below sea level, in a volcano, in low earth orbit, etc.) are where the villains go. The good guys can operate out of bases or headquarters, but never, never out of lairs. Them's the rules.

Of course, Project Neptune is a standalone sub; cars that turn into submarines are the domain of another British automaker. Compare it to your typical personal submarine, which prioritizes function over form, and you can definitely see where the Aston Martin influence comes in. It makes every other personal sub look hopelessly clunky by comparison, as a quick glance at the popular Kittredge K-350 will reveal.

Point two? The cost: Around $4 million. Vast sums of money have a funny way of turning flights of fancy into reality.

But even if this thing goes absolutely nowhere, it’s a splashy way for Aston to show off what its new design/engineering arm -- Aston Martin Consulting -- is capable of. Expect more sleek AM-designed boats, home furnishings and, uh, luxury condos in the future. And if you can afford one of those at up to $50 million a pop (for a penthouse), what’s a $4 million submarine to you? It will look perfect parked next to your Aston Martin Valkyrie down at the marina.

Graham Kozak
- Graham Kozak drove a 1951 Packard 200 sedan in high school because he wanted something that would be easy to find in a parking lot. He thinks all the things they're doing with fuel injection and seatbelts these days are pretty nifty too.
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